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It's Fun to Play the Piano ... Please Pass It On!

So what is your dream piece you want to go and tackle on a relative short time basis, like somewhere in 2007? Mine is Alla Turca, I'd very much like to be able to perform that at full speed somewhere in the near future. It's just such a fun piece, well known, and sounds very complicated, while certainly the main theme I think is quite doable.

I would love to play Images book1 by Debussy. The first one in particular I think is translated 'Reflections in the water' or something like that. One of my favorites and hopefully I can build up to that between now and the end of '07.

My dream piece is Prelude, 1st movement of the Suite Bergamasque by Debussy. I can only play the beginning right now. It is nowhere near as well known as Claire de Lune, which is a shame, because it's an incredibly moving and beautiful piece of music. Not to say Claire de Lune isn't, but that one is mysterious, while the Prelude just lifts my spirits everytime I hear it.

Für Elise ... for my mother. Yes, she's a big Beethoven fan. The minute I bought a piano she made me promise to learn that one. I'd love to manage it by Christmas 2007, but I don't hold out much hope. It's four pages long, and there's a lot of ink on those pages!

Gosh, all of these are such great ideas. I am going to write all of them on my "consider" list. I am working on "The Heart Asks Pleasure First" right now, and I hate to report that it is hard than I thought it'd be. And I found the music to George Winston's Canon in D online somehwere, but I haven't tried it.

Hmmm...for 2007 there's Gliere Arietta and a short Mendelssohn piece I'd like to learn. My dream piece is Chopin 10/3. I've learned the first two pages but I'm told the rest is about a grade 9 or 10 level!! so it may be a few years before I get through that one!

may be Beethoven 32 variations in c minor, hopefully by the end of next year. for shorter one, would like to try Chopin etude op.10.2 which would take at least 6 months to get it under fingers i'd guess.

"Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get — only what you are expecting to give — which is everything. What you will receive in return varies. But it really has no connection with what you give. You give because you love and cannot help giving." Katharine Hepburn

The first arabesque is a wonderful piece. I first learned it many years ago (age sixteen, I believe). But I recently relearned it in a much more mature way. Getting the three on two to work smoothly takes some work and there are a few complex runs that yield to slow careful practice. The piece is also more melodic than most of Debussy's later work. [you can listen to my take on it HERE ].

Get the John Browning (a lost treasure) version off iTunes. Horowitz did it too but he changed a lot of it.

My other personal favorite is Gottschalk's Grand Tarantelle for Piano & Orchestra. Killer piano. Good version on iTunes is Maurice Abravnel with the Utah Symphony but it is available in print as a four-hand reduction.

"Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get — only what you are expecting to give — which is everything. What you will receive in return varies. But it really has no connection with what you give. You give because you love and cannot help giving." Katharine Hepburn

I played that Aeolian Harp Etude last year, and it was sooooo hard. I asked my teacher for something difficult over the summer, and that's what I got. I took it to one of my two summer substitute teachers, and he mapped out a plan for learning it, and it worked well. After about ten months, I had it at a decent tempo and got many of the notes right. It hurt my forearm to play, so my regular teacher sent me to the other substitute teacher, and he said, "You play the Harp Etude?" I said, "Well, yes, though not very well. I've been working on it for a long time..." He was still deep in thought, or maybe it was shock. He repeated, "You play the Harp Etude?" I said, "Well, I am trying." Finally, he closed the Chopin book and said, "It's way too hard for you." End of conversation. It was a little blunt, but you know, he was right. It was too hard for me. I was glad I did as well with it as I did, but I think it would be years before I got it up to tempo. It's beautiful, though.